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German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

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Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#111

Post by orlovs »

rgblambda wrote: post #50
jtdev wrote: post #31

I can't believe that Microsoft is still charging for Windows licenses... convoluted licensing is in fact is one of the primary reasons that I've moved away from Microsoft products and services.

For individual users who don't mind a small watermark on the screen ,the inability to change their desktop background, or the inability to join the windows insider program, it effectively is free. Granted, this doesn't apply to orgs. But yeah I don't see why they still charge for Home Edition licences. Surely the focus should be on keeping people using Windows. It probably makes sense in the short term to charge but…

Because they can ;)

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#112

Post by zubspace »

I may very well be part of a minority, but after working with Windows for the last 20 or so years I got used to it's quirks. And yes, I actually like it. Windows 10 on a Dell Latitude or XPS is stable, fast and I can run everything under the sun. Office applications, very domain specific applications like the Adobe suite, uncountable useful utility software, cross platform tools like Gimp, Blender or Krita. And still there are many, many applications I absolutely love which run on Windows only.

The half-baken "Flat UI" trend in Windows or the telemetry does not really concern me. Really, it is no deal for me and my colleagues. Embrace, Extend, Extinguish? Oh come on. I'm far more concerned about Microsoft losing against other players. That's the world you should be afraid of.

The best thing about Windows though is Visual Studio. The general consensus is, that it's slow, clunky and hard to use. But actually, that tool is so utterly powerful, streamlined and deep, that every other development environment I every used is missing something of its glory.

And I also love Linux in some ways. I used all different kinds of distributions, either through dual-boot or through Virtualbox, but actually the only thing I really use it for is server-side web-development. And well, what can I say. I love the server side applications. But all those arcane commandline wizardry and the configuration madness still irks me now and then.

But well, to return on topic: It's clear that I mostly work with clients, which mainly use Windows. And there is a lot of software written for Windows environments which can probably never be replaced by other software running on Linux. The thing is, that the push of Microsoft to cross-platform .NET Core or even cross-platform UI (MAUI) opens up those applications to other environments. I'm not fully convinced, yet, but we'll see.

Sorry, for rambling. Just my thoughts.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#113

Post by warkdarrior »

motohagiography wrote: post #67

Software is culture, and when you move users from a middle-manager and bureaucracy-centric platform like Windows to a problem-solving power-tools platform like a Linux, it's going to change the culture of the organization. For the better I think, but the people this disadvantages will dig in hard.

Ha ha. I am pretty sure middle-manager and bureaucracy-centric software will run on Linux as well. Both SalesForce and SAP have Linux support.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#114

Post by munchbunny »

corty wrote: post #92
jandrese wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AD allows admins to apply policy (settings) to every machine in the organization at once. And to make sure the users don't change them. The policies cover pretty much everything, and can be applied as strictly or loosely as you want. There really isn't an equivalent for Linux. You can set up Linux equivalents for bits and pieces of it, but the all in one solution that you can just drop down on the network and hand ov…

AD for settings is a very poor replacement for what puppet or ansible enable on Unixoids. Also, AD is becoming less comprehensive on windows, later versions of many MS packages require powershell and textual config additionally or solely. Not to speak of third-party software where AD group policy support was always spotty at best. Yes, easy clicky setup is possible with AD, but your software options are severely limi…

AD for settings is a very poor replacement for what puppet or ansible enable on Unixoids.

That's true, but Puppet and Ansible aren't meant for end user device management. They're primarily for deploying/running services. AD is the opposite, it's strong in end user scenarios and weak for running services.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#115

Post by josinalvo »

zelly wrote: post #93
motohagiography wrote: post #67

Software is culture, and when you move users from a middle-manager and bureaucracy-centric platform like Windows to a problem-solving power-tools platform like a Linux, it's going to change the culture of the organization. For the better I think, but the people this disadvantages will dig in hard.

You're right, Linux is a problem-solving power-tool. X11 breaks, you now have a problem to solve. Your hardware will only work with a proprietary driver that breaks on every kernel update--that's another problem to solve. What it means to use Linux is to become really good at solving problems.

Most of the time I spent solving problems on my linux was creating personalized solutions that I could not enjoy if I was using windows

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#117

Post by m0xte »

zubspace wrote: post #112

I may very well be part of a minority, but after working with Windows for the last 20 or so years I got used to it's quirks. And yes, I actually like it. Windows 10 on a Dell Latitude or XPS is stable, fast and I can run everything under the sun. Office applications, very domain specific applications like the Adobe suite, uncountable useful utility software, cross platform tools like Gimp, Blender or Krita. And still…

I mostly agree. Windows gives me less of an ass ache from a desktop perspective. At this point it mostly just works and does so a lot better than any Linux desktop I’ve used in the last 20 years or so. On the server side I’d rather be burned alive and will use Linux for everything.

If Linux sorted the desktop issues out or windows sorted the server issues out it’d change the market.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#118

Post by dijit »

zubspace wrote: post #112

I may very well be part of a minority, but after working with Windows for the last 20 or so years I got used to it's quirks. And yes, I actually like it. Windows 10 on a Dell Latitude or XPS is stable, fast and I can run everything under the sun. Office applications, very domain specific applications like the Adobe suite, uncountable useful utility software, cross platform tools like Gimp, Blender or Krita. And still…

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

Unfortunately it's hard for me to read more into your argument or position after I read the opening line.

Microsoft has the software support it does due to the monopoly position it has enjoyed for 30 years- this is not an argument to continue that lest we crown Microsoft "lord of the operating systems" because people actually pay them attention;

Thousands upon thousands of hours of non-microsoft employed developers time goes into supporting Microsoft's bottom line, only microsoft benefits from that.

Also I get a very "I had to go through a punishing time so I would prefer everyone else to be punished in perpetuity" vibe from your comments; similar to adults spanking children because they were spanked themselves and "they turned out fine".

I think we can do better, all of us.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#119

Post by corty »

warkdarrior wrote: post #107
INTPenis wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just schools, what scares me is that healthcare is moving to the cloud. I know from an insider that one of the largest areas of Sweden, at least one, has been moving to office365. While conscious people inside the very same organisation have been trying to prevent the move of data into the hands of a foreign company. And at the same time large telcos with a lot of government clients have also moved to office365 b…

Lots of cloud services have in-country presence, so that they actually guarantee the local (in-country) storage of data. It is similar to how IBM offers/used to offer managed services -- they have the hardware and the software, it may be on prem or in a local data center, and they manage the application offering for you.

In-country presence of american companies has been proven to be nonviable because american courts can order data to be handed over from the foreign daughters to american agencies https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLOUD_Act

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#120

Post by xur17 »

zubspace wrote: post #112

I may very well be part of a minority, but after working with Windows for the last 20 or so years I got used to it's quirks. And yes, I actually like it. Windows 10 on a Dell Latitude or XPS is stable, fast and I can run everything under the sun. Office applications, very domain specific applications like the Adobe suite, uncountable useful utility software, cross platform tools like Gimp, Blender or Krita. And still…

As a counter point, I've been working with Linux for the last 20 or so years, and I've gotten quite used it its quirks. It would take a lot to get me to switch at this point - I vastly prefer using it to both Windows and OSX (I used a OSX machine for 4 years at my last job, and have used Windows off and on).

If Windows was free, and Linux cost $200, I'd still go with Linux.

I guess my point is that a lot of the reason so many people use Windows is because it's what they are used to, not because it's actually better.

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